Oops! I was updating the site and I made a major, major typo. Somehow, I overwrote the entire look of the site. Please be patient while I wait for my web developer to wake up and rescue me.

Update: I fixed it all by myself!

Medical insurance coverage is something we need to consider carefully. Even minor medical needs, such as prescription drugs or minor health problems, can add up if you do not have adequate medical insurance coverage. In the case of major illness or accident, which can happen to anyone at any time, proper medical insurance coverage is invaluable.

I just finished uploading new content to my consulting start-up course, Become a Consultant: How to Make the Leap. You’ll now also find:
- Tips for Getting Started with Managing Your Online Reputation, a key part of jumpstarting your expert status (audio)
- Six Secrets for Managing Your Online Reputation(audio)
- Managing Your Online Reputation, a detailed report, along with a list of resources you can start using now
- The Three Things You *MUST* Do Before You Can Move to Solution-based Fees (audio)…

When it comes to your personal and business brand, your email address may be undoing all your hard work. Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of email addresses – and I’ve had a chance to make observations through the eyes of hiring manager, consultant, client, volunteer and colleague. And I have spotted 7 terrible secrets revealed by email addresses.

Ah, the economy. I found myself saying something about it to a consultant friend tonight. She admonished me for bringing it up. She reminded me that I’ve been at this almost 15 years and that the economy has gone through a lot of changes in that time.

I was just complaining because I was a bit bored. The truth is that any change in the economy brings good things for consultants. An upswing means more money to go around, more people starting new businesses or expanding existing ones. And, when the economy contracts, things can be good too. When companies and organizations downsize, they often need to bring in consultants to cover gaps. Or they may need to bring in someone to help them grow – but they don’t want to commit to a full-time employee. So a consultant can be a great way for them to solve a problem or find a direction, without committing to a new hire.

And some industries, like government or health care, tend to be around, no matter what the economy.

So stop watching the news. Stop reading the papers. Stop searching Google and Twitter. Just ignore the bad news.

Because the truth is that you can build a business in any economy. You just need to pay attention to what the market needs. And keep on marketing yourself. For consultants, a "bad" economy may mean your contacts move around to other firms, you get called on to quote on jobs that used to be done in-house, or you have a chance to provide strategic direction to a company that needs to turnaround.

It’s an opportunity. Not a down economy.

I love my smartphone. Normally, I’m at the head of the curve when it comes to adopting new technologies. But I was worried that a smartphone might intrude on my work-life balance. Was I ever wrong!

Because of my smartphone, I’m spending far less time at the computer. I can go for a walk and weigh up a strategy, campaign or problem, rather than sitting at my desk. I can go for a bike ride in the middle of the day, answer my email, and head back home.

My kids are happier. I can check messages while I’m making dinner and talking to them, rather than heading off to the computer.

I can check messages – and answer them – while I’m waiting around at the bank, grocery store, doctor, dentist and other places.

I can read the newspaper or an ebook at a park bench, while waiting in my parked car or even lying in bed.

If I’m heading to a meeting with a client, I can pull up their website, LinkedIn details or other  information just moments before I get there.

And those are just some of my business reasons! 

How about you? Do you love your smartphone?

When you’re working hard at your life, it’s easy to get caught up in the future. The home you want. The car you want. The vacations you’ll take. The amazing business you’ll have. The work-life balance you’ll one day get. The time you’ll spend with your family and friends. Or the negatives that you’ll resolve – the dishes that will be done, the squeaky door you’re going to get fixed, the fridge you’ll clean out, the laundry that won’t be piled up.

We’re planning a one-hour telephone call that you can dial into or listen to on your computer. It’s the first time we’ve done this, so it will be free, except for whatever normal long distance charges might apply. We’re still pulling the details together, of course. But we need your help! We want to know what time works best for you.

Many of you have followed me on Twitter as @andrea_coutu. I wanted to let you know that I’ve now set up a separate account for Consultant Journal: @consultantj. You’re welcome to follow me at both accounts, of course, but I’ll be tweeting more specifically about consulting and business management under the Consultant Journal account.

Do you Tweet? Come say hello!

Okay, the other day, I asked you about ad mock-ups. You spoke. I’ve gone back to that post and updated the images. What do you think now?

Related: 

• Images of the ads

 This is a guest post on how to become a health sciences consultant.

• How to become a consultant
• How to become a weight loss consultant
• Become a sports nutrition consultant
• Become a legal nurse consultant
• Consulting business ideas

If you have a product or service you’d like Consultant Journal to check out, just let us know. But be prepared for our honest opinion – we want to do a service to the readers here at Consultant Journal and we can only do that by telling it like it is. We tend not to be complete Debbie Downers, though, and we like to draw attention to the good points, too. You may also be interested in our consultant directory and list, if you think your services/goods are a fit for our readers.

Have you started a consulting business? Even an itty bitty one? Have you grown the one you had? Tell me your story and how Consultant Journal has helped and I’ll consider you for a blog post, complete with a link to your website. One of the things I love about this blog is the opportunity to hear from people just like you. So many of you send emails. If you’d like to share your story with the wider world (and promote your business), contact me.

Every year, I send my clients, vendors and business partners holiday cards. It’s a great way to say "thank you". In recent years, I’ve shifted to New Year’s cards, when people are back in the office and a little more ready to actually spend a moment or two on reading the card. Plus it avoids offending anyone who doesn’t celebrate holidays in December — just about everyone is okay with New Year’s.

As a green-thinking, home-based business owner who strives to reduce waste, I’ve been wondering if I should give up holiday cards and move to an alternative. A few businesses I know send out electronic cards — but they’re ad agencies and graphic designers, so you can imagine just how fabulous those are. I’ve also thought about donating what I would have spent on cards.

However, I just started a donation team at Kiva. Kiva allows people to make microloans – really tiny loans — to people in other parts of the world. You can help someone buy inventory for their business, buy a motorcycle to use as a taxi, buy a stove, expand their house, go to school — there are tons of options. See http://www.kiva.org/team/consultant_journal. If you’d like to join the team, please do so! It’s $25 to get started and the wonderful thing about making microloans is that, when you’re paid back, you can donate the money again (or pocket it, if you need to!). I’ve been making loans for a few years now and I’ve helped families throughout the world. I love making Kiva loans and encourage you to consider it, whether you’re sending out holiday cards or not.

Still interested in holiday cards? See:

• 5 tips for digital holiday cards
• 5 reasons to send business holiday cards
• Discount business Christmas cards

I started Consultant Journal several years ago with the aim of helping people understand how to start, run and grow consulting businesses. Over the years it has grown. I’d love to bring more content, more tools and more community to this site.

If you’re doing holiday shopping anyway, you can click through our Amazon link and Consultant Journal will receive a small commission. It doesn’t matter what you buy: holiday cards, books, gift cards, clothes, toys, anything really!

Click the banner here to go to Amazon:

Pets.com died a miserable death just 10 years ago this week. Back in 1999, Pets.com was one of the hallmarks of the dot-com era and its death signified the dot-com crash. The

Marketing for counselors may seem like an uncomfortable area for many people used to being in a helping profession. But counselors can succeed with marketing based on their values, just like any other consultant or small business owner can. If you think of marketing as something “evil”, it’s probably because you’ve encountered marketing that doesn’t fit with your values.

Canadian readers – just a quick note to remind you that, if you place your orders before July 1st, you can avoid the upcoming HST and only pay GST. Consultant Journal is based in BC, so that means you’re only dealing with GST of 5% right now.

That means this is a great time to order your one of the Consultant Journal guides or workbooks or the Become a Consultant course.

If you live outside Canada, you need not worry about these taxes.

I’m thinking about getting some private health insurance. Have you done this? 

What do you think about the options? Is it worth adding on dental and vision?

Open thread today…what are your top financial concerns for your business or personal life?

Go ahead…jump in and let’s talk money today.

What makes consulting a good fit for you?

Throughout my 20s, I thought about doing a PhD. A three or four trusted mentors encouraged me to go after a PhD, because I love research, discovery, writing, publishing and teaching. I thought about it really seriously, but, in the end, I changed my mind.

• Mentored students, new workers, contractors and new consultants
• Coached entrepreneurs and executives
• Published three ebooks
• Written more than 1,300 articles – for magazines, books, websites and blogs
• Researched everything from Shakespeare to hubs and routers and from dental implants to banking software
• Had my work featured in a textbook
• Developed a course to help people start and run consulting businesses
• Taught at the university level, including for the University of British Columbia
• Been invited to speak at association
• Been hired to speak professionally
• Developed a consulting methodology based on my independent research
• Earned a very competitive living

Consulting skills can help lift your career — and business — to new heights. By taking the time to review and improve your consulting skills, you can gain more control over the direction you’re headed in.

When I started in consulting, I had great technical skills. I could lay out marketing strategies, create marketing tools, manage projects and so on. But managing client relationships, sales, proposals, invoicing, contracts, my business plan and so on were totally new to me. I had the skills to succeed as a marketer, but now I needed to figure out how to run a marketing consulting company.

Fortunately, my background in marketing and my love of people gave me the foundation to get my business going. I took part in an entrepreneur program, which helped mentor me and connect me to some great people. In fact, all these years late, I still keep in touch with many of those people — some as friends, some as clients, some as both and some simply out of an interest in finding out where we are these days.

For me, learning to manage client relationships has been the most valuable part of my journey. I’ve learned to see my clients as people who love their businesses and who have a lot at stake. If they’re not buying into my vision, then that’s because I’m selling them my vision — and not working with theirs. I’ve learned my clients are the experts in their own businesses and that I’m there to guide them in their journey.

What consulting skills have been most important for you?

It’s April 11th and that means it’s Consultant Journal’s fourth anniversary! Woot woot!

Running a business involves some risks. For me, there came a point where the risk of not following my dreams and pursuing my passions was higher than the risk of staying in a regular office job.

Once you start a business, though, you may still have some fears. People have told me they fear:

• sales
• flying (making business trips a challenge)
• public speaking
• negotiating
• being put in a position where the client lowballs them
• and so on.

What are your biggest fears about your business?

Director Billy Wilder, the man behind Sunset Blvd and Some Like It Hot once said:

“Trust your own instinct. Your mistakes might as well be your own, instead of someone else’s.”

Still wondering if you should make the leap to starting a consulting business or perhaps to growing your existing business? What is your gut telling you?

Famed physicist and Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie pioneered research in radium, polonium and radioactivity. But she once shared some wisdom that may inspire you as you go about managing your life, career and business:

“Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.”

Marie Curie began her undergraduate work in Warsaw at a time when women were not permitted to attend university. Fearing the repercussions of the czarist regime, she studied at a "floating university" that changed location nightly. She eventually went on to be the first woman in France to get a PhD, the first female prof at the Sorbonne and the first woman to win the Nobel Prize. That’s passion. That’s values-driven.

What drives you in your work and life?

Have you ever got into a situation where you’re convinced your client has to listen to you? 

Where you know you’re the expert? Where your experience, your years in the trench, your training, your education and your methodology — and maybe even your gut — tell you what the client needs in this situation?

Stop for a moment.

Think of your client. It’s your client’s business. Your client’s market. Your client’s experience. Your client’s history, training, education and methodology telling them to disagree with you.

And maybe your client is right.

In fact, your client is right. They know their business better than anyone else.

So reposition. Reframe. Find out the sticking points. What’s holding your client back from accepting your opinion, your expertise?

Look for a way to bridge the differences. Let your client own this solution. Because, if they don’t believe in you, they’re never going to trust that your solution is right. And it will just be sitting on a shelf.

In the end, it’s not about being right. It’s about building a bridge to help the client cross over to a world where they don’t feel the pain of their current challenges. So be part of the solution.

Wow, 2010. When I was a kid, this was the future. It was past the timeline of 2001, the movie. It was 10 years into the millenium. And now it’s just…today.

Still…2010. I’m a little behind — that’s been my story since the fall — but I’m thinking about New Year’s resolutions. I want them to be in line with my values.

In 2007, I promised to blog naked. (It got attention, but I meant I’d be blogging more openly and honestly.) In 2008, I aimed for efficiency in work and to earn more per hour — good on those two points, but I’m not sure how well I did with my work scheduling. And, in January 2009, I launched the Become a Consultant course.

This year? Well, I want to be more organized this year. I want to grow my business more. But, having sought to grow my business this past year, I’m waaaaay behind. I haven’t sent out a Consultant Journal newsletter in a few months. That’s high priority for January.

Still, I need to take some time to organize my thoughts around what I want to do in 2010.

How about you? What’s on the agenda?

I disagree with this, but this still made me laugh out loud:

"A word to the wise ain’t necessary – it’s the stupid ones that need the advice. "

- Bill Cosby

The wise, of course, are already looking for and following good advice!